Level 2
At the beginning of level 2, most of the crew observed Ronnik's trial, meeting Lord Drysdale for the first time and receiving his heartfelt congratulations. Alster remained behind to aid Benwick in Segovax's resurrection and pick up a few of his herbal recipes. Superion was desperately trying to civilize Mox, for the glory of Erathis and the safety of all delicious virgins. With Segovax shaking off the cold touch of death, Ronnik sentenced to hang, and Mox convinced Mother Aran's pies count as virgins, the crew were content. But as they say, birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, and adventurers gotta adventure. Benwick asked them to help his friend, Gorn Hammerfall, proud dwarf and captain of the guard. Gorn's ancestors, the Ramthane clan had built Restwell Keep centuries ago. Legend had it that the Ramthane clan treasure had been taken when the Keep was taken by Bertak, a half-orc bandit. Gorn was not convinced, and had undertaken a clandestine mission to find the Ramthane family crypt, hidden beneath Restwell. He believed he had found it, and hired the adventurers to descend into the depths, as he could not leave his duties without arousing suspicion. The crew was provided with several tokens with the seal of clan Ramthane, and a magical lamp they could use to contact Gorn once the treasure was found. The crew descended deep below the keep, and battled their way through foul undead, a murderous statue, and a cursed key that caused everyone to want to murder the bearer. They found their way to the crypt and defeated the spectre of Greysen Ramthane and took his treasure, several large chests of gold and his personal magical items. The crew lit the lamp to summon Gorn. Alas, treachery! Benwick revealed himself to be a priest of Zehir, who murdered Gorn and one of Drysdale's liuetenants and pinned the blame on the crew. Soon, the folk of the town and Drysdale's men would be howling for the blood of our heroes. With a villainous laugh, he teleported the chests of gold away and left the crew to their fate. The crew attempted to sneak out of town, aided by Bodo, a local boozhound and mercenary, but double treachery! It was not Bodo at all, but one of Benwick's henchmen, revealed to be a shapeshifting changeling. The crew was arrested and brought before Lord Drysdale, expecting to join Ronnik on the gallows. However, the crew had a surprise eyewitness! Mox, it seems, was hiding under the bed in their rooms when Benwick's cronies came in to plant false evidence. Drysdale stayed their execution, and that of Ronnik, who was also falsely accused, on the condition that the crew hunt down the traitor Benwick and bring him to justice. The crew noticed that the people of the town were very upset with their release, as they did not believe Benwick a traitor, and thought it some ruse of Drysdale's to force his religion on the town and discredit a critic. The crew headed to the Crossroads, as it seemed likely Benwick's next step was to hire an army. This was not the case, as all the local mercenaries had been hired by the priests of Bane for an expedition to the center of the Scar. They did pick up a random 16 year old girl that was standing in a corner talking to herself about the imminent return of the Primordials to rain death upon all the heretics. Obviously, she was a kindred spirit. Also, Alster wanted to buy a riding mammoth, but they were fresh out, only having eating mammoths on hand. This made them very sad. But not hungry. They travelled to the lizardfolk swamps, wading through giant spiders, and pools full of ball leeches, and found that Benwick had summoned their warriors for a great battle, and spoke in hushed tones of a "black goddess" that would join the fight soon. They tracked this black goddess, in truth a large black dragon, to a corrupted stone circle, where she was conducting some business. After she flew away, the crew met with the fey goblins, who disclosed the deal: They were to guard her eggs while she and her mate besieged Restwell with Benwick. They offered the crew a different deal: if they killed the dragon, and gave the goblins her eggs, they would allow the crew to use their fey tunnels for swift transport back to the keep. Begrudginly, the crew accepted. It was a fight to end all fights. This was no hatchling, raised by kobolds, willing to surrender and befriend them. This was a full-on, mother-fucking, chaotic evil black dragon, defending her eggs from dirty adventurers. Soon, it was over, and the crew stood victorious over their first dragon corpse. But reverse treachery! The heroes decided to pull one over on the goblins, and would only agree to hand over one egg, wishing to keep one as a bargaining chip against the remaining dragon in Benwick's army. When the goblins refused to accept such double-dealing, Superion decided to negotiate with his axe , and smote one of the goblins mightily. The rest scampered back into their tunnels, and closed the fey door, forcing the crew to find an alternate route back to Restwell. Category:Chapters